


the last great american dynasty

by possibilityleft



Category: Incredibles (Pixar Movies)
Genre: Backstory, Character Study, F/M, Family Fluff, Female-Centric, Fluff, Gen, Minor canon divergence, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Post-Canon, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:13:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26657959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possibilityleft/pseuds/possibilityleft
Summary: Parenting as a Super was a new challenge every day.
Relationships: Bob "Mr. Incredible" Parr/Helen "Elastigirl" Parr, Helen "Elastigirl" Parr & Violet Parr
Comments: 14
Kudos: 32
Collections: 2020 Disney Animated Movie Exchange (DAM Exchange)





	the last great american dynasty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertVixen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/gifts).



> This is mild canon deviation as it kind of assumes the second movie didn't happen.
> 
>  _And thou shalt in thy daughter see,_  
>  This picture, once, resembled thee.  
> \--Ambrose Philips, "To Miss Charlotte Pulteney, In Her Mother's Arms," 1724

Helen's mother hadn't been a Super. Helen started hiding her abilities when she was sixteen and came into them. Her body would change; she was becoming a woman, her mother told her. Blood on her sheets, her pants snug across her hips, and then -- the stretch. Helen had known instantly to hide it.

Her mother had never suspected, or if she had, she never let on. Helen's mother had eight children, and Helen had been the third oldest, self sufficient as long as she could remember. She took care of her younger siblings when her older sisters left to start their own families, and practiced with her stretching whenever she could. When she moved out with a friend it was a minor family scandal, but she was beyond ready. She was Elastigirl.

Helen missed a lot of family occasions after that, because crime took no holidays. One of her last memories of her mom before the cancer was at her wedding. Helen leaned down to let her mother adjust her veil, staring into the top of her mother's head. The salt and pepper bleeding through the red of her mother's hair distracted Helen, made her mother seem impossibly old, even though she was barely in her fifties. It felt so far away for Helen. 

"When did you get so tall?" her mother asked, her voice almost wounded, and Helen had laughed. She wasn't tall, but of course her mother always imagined her child-sized. Helen squeezed her mother's hand and then went out to change her own life forever. 

*

Helen knew as soon as she became pregnant that their kid might have powers, but she thought it was something she could prepare Violet for when she got older. After all, Helen had been a late bloomer. Bob had manifested his around age ten.

And yet here was Helen in the department store with six-month-old Dash and only half of her five-year-old daughter. It was the top half so that helped, but from the way Violet was wailing, they weren't going to keep this secret long. With the reaction time that had saved her life many times over, Helen tucked Dash into her hip and pushed her older child into the nearest clothes rack. It was one of the round ones with a small empty space in the middle. Helen leaned down on her haunches and petted Violet's hair with her free hand. Dash, thankfully, only stared at the empty spot where his sister's legs should be, struck dumb in surprise. Helen hoisted him into a more comfortable position, pushing aside a pair of jeans. 

"Ssh, ssh," she said to Violet. "Be a secret agent with me."

Violet silenced immediately but pointed at her missing feet. It was as if she'd been cut off at the midsection, but Helen was pretty sure that the rest of her was still there, since she was standing on her invisible feet. Her hair was full of static. 

"I'm going to touch your leg," Helen said, gesturing, and Violet nodded. 

"You always say not to hide in the clothes," Violet said.

"A secret agent has to hide somewhere, doesn't she?" Helen said, touching Violet's ankle, which seemed to be fine, just invisible. She sighed in relief and yanked up her daughter's sock which had slid down, feeling the decorative beads in her hand.

"How do I fix it?" Violet asked, and Helen opened her mouth, and then shut it again. She had no idea. Dash squirmed and she popped his pacifier in. 

"Concentrate," Helen said, and Violet shut her eyes. Suddenly, she was entirely gone. 

"Wrong way," Helen said, trying to keep the panic from her voice. Why hadn't any of the parenting books talked about this? 

"Ma'am?" someone said loudly from behind Helen. She jumped a little and almost hit her head on the clothes rack as she twisted around to see who was standing there. There was a teenage store employee, looking uncomfortable. Helen straightened up quickly. 

She laughed and she knew it sounded forced. "Hi! How are you? I was looking for my daughter, she loves to hide in these," she said, pointing at the clothes rack. Somehow they'd managed to knock half of the jeans onto the floor, of course. 

The employee squinted at her. 

"Here I am, Mom!" Violet said, appearing from behind another rack. She was entirely visible to Helen's relief. The employee sighed and bent over to begin picking up the clothes. Violet put her finger to her lips and grinned at her mom. 

Helen grinned back. First she'd been terrified but now her chest swelled with pride. Her daughter was Super! 

"Sorry," Helen said to the employee, gesturing for Violet to come back to her. She took her daughter's tiny hand and abandoned the cart behind her, only grabbing her purse and the diaper bag, Dash sucking his pacifier loudly in her ear. She held Violet tight as they made their way to their car without further incident. 

Violet entertained Dash on the way home by disappearing her fingers and bringing them back. He laughed with baby joy every time. 

"I am so going to win hide and seek tomorrow," Violet said, and Helen's heart leapt into her throat, the excitement of this moment dimmed. She wasn't ready to have this conversation, but there was no helping it now. 

"We'll show Daddy when he gets home," she said, not wanting to have the discussion without backup. 

Violet cheered and Helen drove, thinking about the future. 

*

"Let's go here," Violet said suddenly, disappearing into the store. Helen hesitated. 

"For school?" she said. The windows were full of mannequins in very small shirts and flared jeans. Several plastic bellybuttons were on display. 

Violet had already gone in, not waiting for a response, but Helen supposed she should be glad her daughter had consented to go to the mall with her. Before the island, Vi had already been pulling away from her, hiding under her hair. They'd gotten closer during the adrenaline rush of terror and the work (the work that Helen had sorely missed) but now it was back to the way it had been before. Violet said nothing about school, nothing about her friends.

Helen wondered if it was her fault they weren't close. She didn't have favorites, but Violet was the easy child comparatively and maybe she'd gotten the short end of the stick. She wanted to be better than her own parents, to be an active mom, close to her kids. It wasn't that her mother didn't care about her and her siblings, but she never tried to understand her. Helen wasn't the fun parent, but she thought she was a pretty cool mom. It was hard to grow up hiding who you were. It was no wonder Violet was quiet. 

Helen sighed and went in. She glanced around and finally spotted her daughter looking at some very small sweaters. 

"Do you remember?" she said, reaching out and touching a metal clothes rack. She was suddenly lost in the memory of the first time her daughter had disappeared on her, and the two months after that when she had "mono" so Helen and Bob could teach her how to control her powers without revealing herself at school. At the time, Helen had been stressed, chasing after Dash and reading every book that Dicker could get for her about Super kids. Bob still had to work, of course, so mostly it had just been the two of them during the day. Violet would curl up in her lap for storytime, following along with sometimes invisible fingers.

"Do I remember what?" Violet said, and Helen gestured to the clothing rack. Violet had wanted to hear the story over and over again around the time she turned ten and Dash had started manifesting his own powers. Every time she'd sighed in relief when they got out of the store without being caught. It always tugged at Helen's heart a bit.

"Oh," Violet said, realizing and blushing. "I mean, yeah, of course I remember. It kind of ruined my life."

"Ruined," Helen repeated.

"Um, that is--" Violet said, clearly seeing the sadness on her mother's face. She reached up and took off her headband, turning it over in her hands. "I thought it was ruined for a long time. But I guess we're just different." She shrugged. "Maybe someday..."

Their supersuits were all tucked into the back of one of Helen's dresser drawers, behind stained t-shirts and uncomfortable underwear she never wore. Really, she should put them in the safe, but she liked having them close, in case.

"Yeah," Helen said with a sigh. "Someday." She picked up a pink skirt and held it out to Violet "What do you think? It's cute!"

Violet shook her head violently. "Mom, you have no idea what's cute," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm not buying you any shirts that show off your navel," Helen countered. Violet turned away and mumbled something.

"What did you say?"

"I saw what you wore when you were just starting out," Violet said, and Helen nearly blushed then. She didn't have a lot of mementos from her early years, not like Bob, but she had a few. She knew what Violet was talking about: the mohawk, the go-go boots, the bicycle shorts… It had been easy to move around in, but it left nothing to the imagination.

"Those were the times!" she protested.

"Can I dye my hair?" Violet asked. "People do that now." She tucked her headband back in, twisting a lock of hair around her finger.

"Nothing too weird," Helen said. "School rules."

"Okay," Violet said. She smiled a little. "You know, you never tell stories about back then, like Dad does." She rolled her eyes, but it seemed almost like an automatic reaction. "...I bet you have some cool ones."

Helen's first reaction was to shake her head, but then she thought about how lonely she had been at sixteen. At least Violet had her whole family to share her biggest secret.

"You bet I do," Helen said. "Did I ever tell you about my first mission? Huge disaster."

Violet's eyes were bright. They left the store and spent the next hour in the food court, shielded by enthusiastic shopping conversation around them, but still keeping their voices low. They ate ice cream and Helen told some carefully edited stories. When they finally got up to leave, they didn't have any shopping bags with them, but Violet was laughing. Helen had a feeling she was going to regret showing her daughter those old TV show concepts, but there was a reason that it hadn't gone further than the pilot.

"I can't believe you got to meet Carol Burnett," Violet said, as they made their way to the car.

"And the president!" Helen said, mock offended at her daughter's priorities.

"Not a good one," Violet scoffed, and Helen just had to laugh. It was impossible to impress your kids, she thought. But maybe Violet did like her after all.


End file.
